GOKUMON

GOKUMON is the international name used by Japanese three-piece Uchikubi Gokumon Doukoukai. Guitarist and vocalist Atsushi Osawa, drummer and vocalist Asuka Kawamoto, and original bassist Akira Takayama formed the band in September 2004. After Takayama left in March 2006, junko joined on bass and vocals that November, completing the line-up that remains today.

The band describe their music as seikatsu micchaku-gata loud rock, or “life-immersed loud rock”. Seven-string guitar and five-string bass give GOKUMON a heavy low-end foundation, while Osawa’s lyrics stick to everyday subjects such as food, tooth decay, hair loss, not wanting to go to work, and the pleasure of a bath before bed. All three members sing, and at shows a VJ projects the lyrics and visuals on screen in time with the music.

GOKUMON’s first nationally distributed release, ‘Shomin-ha Bakudan-san’, arrived in 2009, the same year the band made their first FUJI ROCK FESTIVAL appearance. They went on to become regulars at major Japanese rock festivals and headlined Nippon Budokan in 2018. Their 20th-anniversary campaign in 2024 included a tour of all 47 Japanese prefectures, which closed at LaLa arena TOKYO-BAY that December.

Although they still use the full Japanese name at home, the band adopted GOKUMON for international activity in 2024 to give overseas audiences a shorter name to remember and pronounce. Their overseas history stretches back to a three-city Taiwan tour in 2008, and since their first US tour in 2024 they have played SXSW and taken the GOKUMON NORTH AMERICA TOUR 2026 across the United States and Canada. Ahead of that tour, they released ‘I wish I could speak English’, their first song written entirely in English.

In 2025, GOKUMON launched a new label, Ochanoma Records, within longtime partner LD&K, with Osawa as its head. Their songs have served as themes for the Netflix anime The Way of the Househusband and New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s BEST OF THE SUPER Jr.32, and have featured in TV adverts for McDonald’s and Pocari Sweat. Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries also named the band ambassadors in 2019.